Canfield doubles team earns trip to state

Staff report

OBERLIN

Canfield’s top doubles team of Allison Pavlansky and Gabrielle Brant won a pair of matches at Thursday Division I district tennis tournament at Oberlin College, earning a state tournament berth.

The Cardinals first defeated Solon’s Tinisee Kandakai and Jamie Marks 6-2, 7-5, then beat Walsh Jesuit’s Anne-Marie Kurtz and Gina Costanzo 6-2, 6-0 to advance to Saturday’s semifinal round.

Saturday, Pavlansky and Brant will play Mayfield’s Mitsuki Fukamachi and Jamie Vizelman. The winning will advance to the district championship match, while the loser will play in the third-place match.

The top six teams advance to next week’s state tournament, which begins Friday at Ohio State.

This is the second straight state berth for Pavlansky, who advanced to the second round in Columbus last year while playing with Kaitlin Kaleel.

In singles action, Boardman’s Lindsay Kirkhan lost her first round match to Avon’s Carmela Mostardi 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Kirkhan won a sectional title last weekend, as did Pavlansky and Brant.